Illicit
by Rider Paladin
Summary: Future setting, not purely canon: Rose Wilson gathers the children of Nightwing, Arsenal, Wally West, Tempest, Batman, and Superman into a new Titans team, but one new Titan in particular seems to have put Rose under her spell.
1. Part 1

"Illicit"

Disclaimer: The future DC Universe and its characters depicted in this story do not belong to me. They belong to DC Comics, which is owned by Time Warner. The only thing I can consider remotely mine is the plot.

Author's note: Reading a whole bunch of good Slade/Dick and Rose/Tim fics made me think of my longstanding fascination with Rose/Mar'i. For those of you who never read Kingdom Come or The Kingdom, Mar'i is the daughter of Dick and Starfire. In the canon of the Kingdom Universe, she's involved with Bruce Wayne's son Ibn al Xu'ffasch, which is pseudo-incestuous because of her father's own non-biological but just as familial ties to Bruce. However, I have chosen to throw that canon out the window. For the purposes of this story, I choose not to recognize that canon.

* * *

When Rose had first found herself babysitting for Mar'i Grayson as a teen, she had had a hard time keeping up with the half-alien toddler. The little girl was constantly moving and much of that moving was done in the air. Now, Rose could jump higher than the average person and she didn't suck as a gymnast, but she did not have the natural ability of her charge's father. As if that wasn't enough, Mar'i insisted on making Rose chase her down every chance she got. At the end of her first babysitting session with Mar'i, Rose had concluded that Mar'i was going to be even more of a handful when she got older.

Years later, Rose found herself mentoring a new set of Teen Titans, consisting of Roy's daughter Lian, Wally's daughter Iris, Garth's son Cerdian, Superman's adoptive son Chris, Batman's son Damien, and . . . Mar'i. On that first day, she found herself observing the new Teen Titans, who reminded her of their parents in ways both good and bad. Lian was quick with her bow and with a flirtatious remark, usually directed at Cerdian, but sometimes at Chris or Damien. Iris could never seem to stop talking or stop moving, vibrating if she had to keep still for too long. Cerdian was quiet and reserved, almost to the point of timidity, particularly where Lian's flirtations were concerned. Chris was a Boy Scout but was highly inquisitive, almost to the point of annoyingness. Damien was cold and irritatingly assured of his own skills, to the point where he tried to boss the other Titans around. And Mar'i . . .

Mar'i had definitely blossomed since Rose had seen her last, and she clearly wasn't ashamed of it. Her uniform was a black leotard with a plunging neckline accented by a translucent purple wing symbol and knee-high black boots accented with translucent purple and translucent purple bracers. The leotard clung tightly to Mar'i's body, accentuating every luscious curve. Long, wavy black hair cascaded down the half-alien girl's back and all-green eyes peered out from a delicate-featured and highly expressive face. All in all, she had grown up to be an almost-exact mirror image of her late mother.

At the moment, Mar'i was scolding Damien for his arrogance. Rose had to bite back a smile; the brat was getting what was coming to him. She could see now why Tim had sent him to the Titans; he was hoping that Damien would learn some humility. Of course, it didn't seem to be working; the brat was just scowling at Mar'i as though she were unfit to even shine his boots. Rose clenched her fists, resisting the urge to go over there and beat some sense into Damien.

Chris stepped between Damien and Mar'i before things could escalate. He looked at Damien with a stare of sharp warning. Damien simply looked at Chris with a glare of harsh contempt. The two young men held their respective positions for what seemed like forever, until Rose spoke up.

"That's enough," she said. "Training's over. Hit the showers . . . and Lian, don't think about trying to get into the boys' side. Chris, no X-ray vision to peep on the girls."

As the new Titans made their way to the showers, Rose chanced a look at Mar'i and found herself thinking two things. The first was, _Damn, the view's fine from here._ The second was, _Why am I perving on a girl I've known since she was a toddler?_

The Ravager sighed to herself and went to the swimming pool, hoping to clear her head. After all, it was not exactly a sign of clear thinking to ogle a teenaged girl. Then again, as a teenage girl, she'd chased after the affections of one Dick Grayson, and he was certainly a fine specimen of a human male, then and now. As she thought about it, she remarked to herself that Mar'i had her father's leadership skills, with the way the other Titans – sans Damien – seemed to rally around her. She idly wondered what _other_ traits she'd inherited from Dick, but madness waited down that path.

* * *

End Notes: Pretty short, but I've decided to make this a series of ficlets, so it won't be that short. I know it's kind of slow-moving, but I'm setting up the foundation for Rose and Mar'i to get together. The next chapter will be told from Mar'i's perspective.


	2. Part 2

"Illicit, Part 2"

Disclaimer: The future DC Universe depicted here does not belong to me. It belongs to DC Comics, which in turn belongs to Time Warner.

Author's note: This time, the story will be told from Mar'i's perspective. It'll essentially be the same as Part 1, but in Mar'i's perspective. You'll see what it was like for her to join the Teen Titans and what she thinks of being there with them. Plus, there'll be some more Mar'i/Rose hinting.

* * *

Mar'i Grayson had been sunbathing on the roof of her father's apartment complex when her father came up looking for her. She looked at him briefly before turning back out to the sun. "What do you want, Dad?" she asked warily.

"Rose came by with an invitation for you," Dick replied. "To join the Teen Titans."

"So she offered to take me off your hands," Mar'i said. "You should be happy."

"It's not like that," Dick answered, the hurt evident despite his guarded expression. "You can be with people your age. Make friends. See Lian again."

Those last three words struck a chord with Mar'i. "Fine. Tell Rose I'm in."

That was how Mar'i Grayson, otherwise known as Nightstar, found her way into the Titans Tower in San Francisco. She was grateful that Rose was using the San Fran Tower instead of the New York City Tower. If her father didn't want her near him, she didn't have to be in the same city as him.

She entered Titans Tower with a duffel bag slung over her shoulder. It was filled with a change of clothes for every day she stayed in Titans Tower, along with some other necessities. Once inside, she spotted Rose, garbed in her Ravager gear sans mask, and Lian, who was in her Red Hood attire. Said attire consisted of a hooded red-and-black zip-up vest and black pants with red thigh-guards, along with red archer's gauntlets and black platform boots. A collapsible bow was strapped to her thigh and a hand crossbow was holstered at her hip.

"Lian," Mar'i commented. "You dyed your hair."

"I wanted to make a change," Lian replied, regarding her originally black and currently red hair. "Do you like it?"

"It looks good on you," Mar'i replied.

At that moment, a blur of yellow and red breezed into the Tower. It stopped suddenly, revealing that it was really a redheaded teenage girl. She was dressed in a modified version of the Kid Flash uniform, sleeveless with a lightning symbol similar to that on Jay Garrick's Flash uniform. The lightning symbol's base segued into the red of the girl's pants, trimmed with yellow lightning on her outer thighs. A loose thin belt hung on her hips and she wore a leather jacket in addition to lightning-stemmed red sunglasses.

"Iris," Rose greeted. "Good to see you."

"SorryIgotupfiveminutesago!" Iris West II, a.k.a. Kid Flash III, spoke in a hurry.

"Whoa, whoa, slow down," Rose said. "I can't understand you when you talk that fast."

Iris slowed herself down. "Sorry. I got up five minutes ago." She looked at Mar'i. "Long time no see."

"Sorry I haven't kept in touch," Mar'i answered.

The next person to show up was Cerdian, who was garbed in a skintight dark blue wetsuit-like garment with black wave patterns taking up much of the uniform. He spotted Lian and immediately turned slightly pale. Hesitantly, he walked forward, his feet dragging every step of the way.

"Come on, Cerdian," Lian greeted. "No need to be shy."

Cerdian continued to walk forward, despite the fact that he had the look of a hunted man deliberately giving himself over to his hunters. He was giving off all the signs of sheer terror as he finally stopped in the midst of the four females.

"Feeling shy because you're the only guy among a group of beautiful women?" Rose asked, feeling like teasing Cerdian a bit. Her response was an even paler Cerdian.

The next two to show up were Chris Kent, alias Superboy II, and Damien Wayne, alias Robin V. Chris wore a blue skintight suit with red boots and cape, along with a red belt and the standard "S"-shield. Damien wore a short-sleeved black uniform with a thick red stripe descending down the middle to cover his inner thighs from a burnt gold birdlike symbol which wings connected to burnt gold V's on his shoulders. A burnt gold utility belt wrapped around his hips and a black cape with feather-like scallops covered his shoulders. Black gloves with small compartments on the gauntlets covered his hands and red-soled and steel-toed black boots covered his feet. A birdlike black mask covered his eyes, but left his black hair and most of his face exposed.

"Hi, everyone," Chris said. Beside him, Damien remained silent, appraising everyone present with just his masked eyes. By the set of his jaw, no one made a very favorable impression on him.

"Everyone's here now," Rose said. "That means we can get down to business."

"And that would be?" Damien questioned bluntly.

"There's only so much you can learn from your mentors," Rose replied sagely, "and even more you can learn from each other. Your first lesson is going to begin soon. Follow me."

The six teens followed Rose out of the Tower into the training area. "Here is where the lesson begins," she said to them. "You're going to practice fighting as a team against a singular opponent. That opponent will be me. Don't hold back. Don't kill, but don't hold back."

"That's rather paradoxical," Damien commented grimly. "If you expect us not to hold back, then should you not expect that we will kill you?"

Rose drew her swords, her mindset switching into that of the Ravager. "Come on, then, Robin. If you think you can kill me, then go ahead and try it.

Robin drew a small rod from his belt and extended it into a four-foot stave. He held the stave in both hands as he somersaulted into the air and brought the stave down on Ravager, who blocked it with her swords. Robin flipped over Ravager and swung the stave at her seemingly unprotected back, only for Ravager to casually whirl and block him. Robin spun into a vicious kick that would have done some serious damage had it connected, but Ravager simply crouched to avoid it and swept her leg out to trip him. She succeeded, but he turned his fall into a back-flip, landing on his hands and placing himself back on his feet.

"Go time," Nightstar said to her teammates, flying at Ravager, who simply twisted and bent backward to evade Nightstar's flying charge. Nightstar quickly recovered, making a sharp turn into a flying kick that Ravager barely avoided. Deathstroke's daughter flipped into a kick aimed at Red Hood, who blocked it with her gauntleted wrist. Kid Flash was literally quick to attack, assaulting Ravager with a hyper-speed flurry of punches. Ravager was about to attack Kid Flash when she felt Nightstar approaching, so she ducked and let Kid Flash's and Nightstar's attacks strike each other instead of her.

"Watch where you're going!" Kid Flash yelled.

"You're the one with super-speed; couldn't you get out of my way?" Nightstar retorted.

"This isn't the time," Superboy said, drawing in a sharp breath and exhaling in Ravager's direction. Ravager ran to avoid the gale force winds Superboy was creating with just his breath. Suddenly, a tidal surge washed over her, leaving her drenched.

"Not bad," Ravager commented, rising from the soaked ground. Without even looking, she blocked a kick from Robin and dropped him on his back again. She held her sword at his throat, signaling to him that he should yield. "That'll be enough for now. You can all hit the showers."

"Where are the showers?" Kid Flash asked.

Robin rolled away from Ravager's sword and sprang back onto his feet, holding his stave in the battle position. "We're not done yet," he snarled, launching himself into the air and coming down with a fierce strike on Ravager. Ravager blocked the strike and threw Robin back onto the ground.

"Damien, that's enough!" Nightstar shouted.

"I'm not finished yet!" Robin yelled, pulling his stave into two and revealing a cable wire between the two smaller sticks. Before he could make a further attack on Ravager, he was shot by a purple starbolt from Nightstar. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Stopping you from doing something stupid," Nightstar replied. "She said we're finished."

"We're finished when _I'm_ finished," Robin retorted, walking toward her with killing intent in his body language. As soon as he was close enough, Nightstar slapped him hard enough to knock him to the ground. He rose to his feet with rage evident in his body language.

"That's not how it works here," Nightstar answered. "Here, we're a team and a team works with its leader, not against her."

Superboy interposed himself between Nightstar and Robin at that moment. "That's enough, Damien," he said to Robin. "Calm yourself down now."

Robin glared at Superboy, who answered the glare with a steely stare of his own. Finally, Ravager broke the stalemate between them with her voice. "That's enough. Training's over. Hit the showers."

The six teens filed into the Tower, making their way toward the showers. No one missed Ravager's warnings to Red Hood or Superboy. To his credit, Superboy looked flustered and began to protest, saying something that sounded like, "I'd never do that!"

"Sure you wouldn't," Kid Flash answered tolerantly.

"So, Chrissy, you wouldn't mind if we had to share the shower sometime, right?" Red Hood asked.

Superboy just stammered. "Uh . . . uh . . . I, uh . . . guh . . ."

As Nightstar made her way to the shower, she felt like someone was watching her. She didn't know where that feeling came from, but she knew, somehow, that she was being watched. She looked around to see if there was anyone lurking, but she saw no one.

"Hey, Mar'i, you looking for someone?" Red Hood asked.

"No, not really," Nightstar replied. "It's nothing."

* * *

End Notes: All right, so the Rose/Mar'i hinting I was hoping to put in this chapter didn't materialize as I'd hoped it would, but it's only the first two chapters. There's more to cover and I so hope you will enjoy this. The story won't just be Rose/Mar'i; there'll also be fights with super-villains and appearances from other future versions of DCU children. In the meantime, you're free to let me know what you think of this story so far.


	3. Part 3

"Illicit, Part 3"

Disclaimer: The future DC Universe depicted here, along with its characters, does not belong to me. It belongs to DC Comics, which is owned by TimeWarner.

Author's note: I know that Damien's name is supposed to be spelled with an "a" as opposed to an "e," but I prefer the "e" spelling. Besides, it's the same name, anyway; the English just spell it with an "a" and the French spell it with an "e." Big deal. Speaking of Damien, if anyone's wondering why he's such a little asshole, just look at how he behaves in "Batman and Son." Anyway, this chapter is going to be told in Rose's POV and from now on, unless otherwise noted, every odd chapter is her POV and every even chapter is Mar'i's POV.

* * *

Rose had changed from her armor to an ice-blue bikini that left not much to the imagination. She dived into the pool on the rooftop of Titans Tower and swam, moving with an ease and grace surpassing even an Olympic swimmer. As she swam, she couldn't quite chase the thoughts of Mar'i out of her mind.

She had to give it to the half-alien girl; she had definitely turned out like her father in the right ways. The lithe grace of her movements was something she'd certainly inherited from Dick. The way she fought, acrobatic and free-flowing, reminded Rose of Dick, too. And her backside made Rose think of what Dick's might look like had he been born female.

_Damn it, Rose, get a grip on yourself!_ Deathstroke's daughter thought. _She's like your niece, for Christ's sake! And she's not even 18 yet!_

_Since when did we care about that?_ another voice asked. _We weren't 18 when we wanted Dick. And Mar'i's old enough to make her own decisions._

_Even if we were seriously thinking about it, do we even know she's attracted to us?_ Rose wondered. _And why am I even referring to myself in plural form?_

_It's your mind,_ the voice replied. _Remember that shrink you went to after leaving Daddy? You might want to see her again._

_And tell her what?_ Rose asked. _That I want to throw the daughter of my former crush facedown on my lap and spank that yummy ass of hers?_

_Oh, you admitted it!_ the voice chirped. _Oh, nice pervy image. I'm gonna enjoy that one._

So engulfed was Rose in arguing with herself that she was surprised to see Mar'i standing in front of her when she reached the end of the swimming pool. She looked up and found Mar'i dressed in a black bikini with thong bottoms. She resisted the urge to openly drool while burning that image into her memory.

"Hi, Rose," Mar'i greeted. "I just wanted to go for a swim of my own, see how close I can get to Cerdian's time." She floated around the pool, barely poised on her tiptoes, moving to the side with the diving board. She gently ascended to the diving board and glided down to its edge. With a graceful swan dive, she plunged into the pool, swimming underneath the surface and breaking the surface halfway across. She swam the rest of the way to the other side, swift and elegant. "How did I do?"

"You did great, although I don't have my stopwatch on me," Rose replied.

"Thanks," Mar'i responded with a beatific smile. Seeing the unabashed trust in Mar'i's eyes made Rose almost regret the lustful thoughts she had about the young girl.

"You're welcome," Rose answered. "How do you like it here so far?"

"I like it here," Mar'i replied. "It's great seeing Lian, Iris, and Cerdian again. Chris is nice and Damien . . . he's not so nice."

"That's Bats for you," Rose commented. "They're never that nice, although your father is certainly the exception."

"I'm glad I'm here," Mar'i said.

"So am I," Rose agreed softly. To her surprise, though she didn't show it, Mar'i began to glide closer to her. She silently drew in a breath.

"Hey, I was looking for you!" Iris shouted. The speedster was across the pool from Rose and Mar'i, garbed in a leather jacket over a black shirt and red jeans. "Lian wants to go to the mall and she wanted to know if you wanted to come, too!"

"That sounds good," Mar'i answered.

"It's ok," Rose said. "You can go. Just be careful out there."

"I will," Mar'i replied, floating out of the pool like the goddess Aphrodite from sea foam. Rose looked up at her, carefully schooling her face into a neutral expression, trying her hardest not to betray the lust pooling in her core from watching Mar'i's glistening form. As she watched Mar'i depart from her, Rose was reminded of an old phrase: "I hate to see you leave, but I love to watch you walk away." Yes, that was rather apropos at this particular moment.

_This is going to be rather rough for the next few days,_ Rose thought to herself. Of course, she had no idea how true that simple thought would prove.

* * *

End Notes: Yeah, here's a good point to end this. After all, it's just ficlets, so I don't have to write my usual amount. Anyway, this is good from the perspective of developing Rose's feelings for Mar'i and her guilt for having those feelings, plus the hint that Mar'i may return Rose's feelings. The next chapter, as I'm sure you know, will tell the story of this chapter from Mar'i's perspective. In the meantime, let me know what you think.


	4. Part 4

"Illicit, Part 4"

Disclaimer: The future DCU depicted here and its characters are the property of DC Comics, which is in turn owned by Time Warner. I regrettably do not have a decision-making role in either.

Author's note: I can definitely say that here is where you will get Mar'i's side of the Rose/Mar'i pairing I'm setting up. Like with parts 1 and 2, each subsequent pair of chapters tells the same story from two different perspectives: Rose's and Mar'i's. Now it's time for Mar'i's perspective.

* * *

Mar'i had taken the longest of the three girls in the shower. The feeling of warm water cascading on her body was pleasant to her heightened tactile sense, so much so that she didn't want to leave. If she could stay under the water forever, she would. Except . . . there was something she wanted to do and that was a swim.

Thus, she turned off the shower and dried herself off. Exiting the girls' locker room in only a towel, she passed by Robin, who could not quite manage to contain his blush when he saw her. He did a good job of looking indifferent otherwise. She passed by Superboy, who did a decent job of keeping his eyes no lower than her bare shoulders. She passed by Cerdian, who averted his eyes with a sheepish expression and a blush.

After passing the male Titans, she made it to her room and removed her towel, exchanging it for a black bikini. Oh, her father had nearly had a heart attack when he'd first seen it. His exact words had been, "You are _not_ going to the beach in _that._" Mar'i had flouted him and gone to the beach in that, anyway, that bikini being one which top accentuated her breasts and which bottom was essentially a thong. She didn't understand what his problem was; her mother had been accustomed to wearing less than that . . . and both of them were certainly capable of fending off unwanted male attention.

Mar'i went outside to the pool, only to find Rose swimming in an ice-blue bikini. Mar'i licked her lips appreciatively; the older woman certainly knew how to fill out a bikini. The ice blue complemented her singular eye and went well with her white hair, she also observed. She moved around the pool until she was standing directly in front of Rose, who had swum to the same edge on which the half-Tamaranean was currently standing. She managed to keep the gratified smile at the lust she detected in Rose's eye off her face and simply greeted her.

"I just wanted to go for a swim of my own," Mar'i said. "See how close I can get to Cerdian's time."

She moved around the pool again, this time perfectly aware of Rose's eye following her. Upon reaching the ladder to the diving board, Mar'i glided up to the diving board and floated to its edge. She bent her knees, pressing down on the diving board with her feet, and sprang into a swan dive that landed her gracefully into the deep end of the pool. She used the momentum to swiftly propel herself through the water, coming up for air midway through. She swam to Rose and asked, "How did I do?"

"I don't have my stopwatch on me, but you did great," Rose replied.

"Thanks," Mar'i answered with a smile. Rose's praise always made her feel good. Even when she was very young and Rose had been her babysitter, she always beamed when Rose would praise her combat skills or acrobatic abilities. The fact that Rose had judged her worthy of being a Titan . . .

"You're welcome," Rose responded. "How do you like it here so far?"

"Great," Mar'i replied. "It's great being here. I'm happy to see Lian, Iris, and Cerdian again, and Chris, too, but Damien . . . he's not very nice."

"Bats rarely are," Rose drawled. "Your father seems to be an exception, though."

"I still like it here," Mar'i said.

"I like having you here, too," Rose responded softly.

_Does she feel the same way?_ Mar'i wondered silently. _Only one way to find out._ She glided closer to Rose, not really sure of what she intended to do, only to be interrupted by Iris's chirpy voice.

"Hey, I was looking for you!" the speedster shouted. Mar'i turned around, irritated that Iris had interrupted their moment, and saw that her friend was dressed in her standard leather jacket over a black shirt and red pants. "Lian wants to go to the mall and she wanted to know if you wanted to come, too!"

"That sounds good," Mar'i answered.

"It's ok," Rose said. "You can go. Just be careful out there."

"I will," Mar'i replied, rising from the pool. She glided just above its surface before planting her feet on solid ground. She passed by Iris and picked up a towel, drying herself off as she walked with Iris.

"What's up with you and Ravager?" Iris asked.

"What do you mean?" Mar'i asked.

"You two looked kinda intimate there when I found you," Iris remarked.

"Your point?" Mar'i asked.

"Just wondering," Iris replied.

Mar'i reached her room and went inside, ditching her bikini top for a purple spaghetti-strap top with a cloven midriff and putting low-rise black vinyl pants on over her bikini bottom. She added black platform boots and a studded leather cuff to her ensemble, leaving her hair in its usual wavy cascade of ebony. Feeling ready, she stepped out of her room and went to find Lian with Iris. When they found Lian, the archer was garbed in a skintight black T-shirt that said "I Love Daddy" in red and tight red Lycra pants, along with a black band around her neck. The outfit also exposed a tattoo lattice around her left arm and a red arrow symbol on her right arm.

"Since when were you into tattoos?" Mar'i asked.

"Those are just the ones you can see," Lian replied with an impish smirk. "You ready?"

"Yeah," Mar'i answered.

The girls exited Titans Tower, taking the underwater access to do so. Along the way out, they passed by Cerdian. Lian smirked at Cerdian and said, "Hope you'll be ok with just Rose. I know how you like having all of us around." The response she received was a red-faced Cerdian, which gave her a good chuckle. "Bye."

"I don't see why you need to torment him so much," Mar'i remarked as the girls headed for the mall.

"Because it's fun," Lian answered. "Besides, he's obviously into me."

"He's _terrified_ of you!" Iris exclaimed.

"I thought he was just terrified of all girls, period," Mar'i mused.

"You misunderstand," Lian responded. "He's not terrified because he thinks I'll hurt him. He's terrified because he doesn't know how to tell me how he feels. I'm just trying to help him out by showing him I feel the same way."

"Next thing, you'll be giving him a lap dance," Iris grumbled.

"A lap dance sounds like fun," Lian chuckled.

"You're incorrigible," Iris muttered.

When the girls reached the mall, they simply milled about, blending in with the crowd. Aside from the tall and inhumanly golden Mar'i, they did a pretty good job of blending in.

"I'm hungry," Iris groaned.

"You're always hungry," Lian muttered.

"Come on," Mar'i said. "We might as well grab a bite so Iris won't end up dead on her feet."

The three girls walked to the food court, where Iris vibrated impatiently in line at the Cinnabon. As Mar'i and Lian waited along with Iris, they were suddenly startled when Iris snapped her arm out at super-speed and caught a dart that had just come within a centimeter of Lian's neck.

"What the –?" Lian uttered.

Mar'i looked around, spotting a small figure darting away into the crowd. _Get back here,_ she snarled internally and hovered above the crowd, scanning it with her unusually keen eyes for the small figure. She found him carefully moving through the crowd, doing his best to appear inconspicuous. For the most part, he would have fooled a regular bystander, but he didn't fool her. She waited until he'd gotten past the crowd and then swooped down on him. He whirled quickly and sliced her arm with metal claws from the backs of his hands. The claws were sharp enough to leave behind a surface wound, but it didn't faze Mar'i, the half-alien girl whirling into an aerial kick that struck down the small figure. He rolled with the kick, taking the opportunity to slice her leg with the claws on his other hand and fleeing afterward.

Mar'i was about to pursue him when she suddenly suffered an attack of weakness. She felt herself going numb in her arm and leg, as well as feeling drained of her usual vitality. She attempted to keep following the figure, but she was having such a hard time staying aerial. She pushed forward, refusing to give up but unable to trail the figure effectively. Finally, she simply drifted to the lower level of the mall and passed out, barely cognizant of the horrified reactions of the shoppers around her.

* * *

End Notes: And here's where I'm going to end this chapter, thus ending another pair of ficlets. The next pair in this will cover Mar'i recovering from what that figure did to her and getting closer to Rose, as well as the answer to the identity of the figure that attacked Lian and Mar'i.


	5. Part 5

"Illicit, Part 5"

Disclaimer: The future DCU and its characters as depicted here do not belong to me; they belong to DC Comics, which in turn belongs to Time Warner. As I have no decision-making position in either, I am pretty much helpless to stem the tide of bad decisions that have been made regarding the portrayals of certain DC characters.

Author's note: Who is the mysterious assailant that tried to attack Lian and felled Mar'i? You will get the answer to that at some point in this series. In the meantime, read on.

* * *

Rose, having nothing else to do, went to train. When she reached the training area, she spotted Superboy and Robin, both minus their capes. Superboy had a gentle grip on Robin, manipulating his body into the proper position. Robin was almost rigid, but allowed himself to be moved, albeit reluctantly, by the Kryptonian boy.

"That's right," Superboy spoke approvingly. "Like that, Damien, but a little firmer on your left." He gently adjusted Robin's position. "Perfect."

"Is this how you Kryptonians fight on your world?" Robin asked.

"Yes," Superboy replied.

Robin practiced fighting from that position, finding it smoother and easier than he expected. He drew his rod and extended it into a stave, swinging it with measured deadliness. He swept it out to strike an invisible opponent before using it to vault into an acrobatic kick. He landed on the ground agilely and closed the stave into its original size, placing it back in his belt.

"Thanks," he said. "But what makes you want to teach me Kryptonian combat technique?"

"You know why," Superboy answered grimly.

"Really," Robin replied. "You mean your real father?"

"Dru-Zod," Superboy confirmed. "Whatever was in him that drove him to try to become a tyrant is in me, too, and with the power I have . . . I'm not sure I can be trusted."

"You're more trustworthy than I am," Robin answered. He placed his hands on Superboy's shoulders, on shoulders that could safely bear the weight of a jumbo jet. "But you can trust me, too. If that ever happens, I'll take you out myself . . . if I can't snap you to your senses."

Rose had to smile when she saw the interaction between Robin and Superboy. She guessed that Robin wasn't such an asshole when he was around someone with whom he could let down his guard. She guessed that Superboy was such a person for Robin.

_Just like their fathers,_ she thought.

Her musings were interrupted when she heard Lian shouting, "Rose! Rose! I need some help here!" Rose immediately ran from the training area, Robin and Superboy following. Along the way, they were joined by Cerdian. When they reached Lian, they found her cradling a sickly orange and sweating Mar'i in her arms. Iris was next to the two girls, a panicked expression on both her and Lian's faces.

"What happened to her?" Rose asked.

"WewerejusthangingoutinthefoodcourtwhensomeoneshotadartatLian!" Iris yammered out. "IcaughtitbeforeitcouldtouchherandMar'iwentafterhimandthenLianandIfoundherunconscious!"

"Slow it down," Rose ordered. "What happened?"

"We were just hanging out in the food court when someone shot a dart at Lian," Iris repeated, this time slow enough to be understood. "I caught it before it could touch her and Mar'i went after him and then Lian and I found her unconscious."

"What did you do with the dart?" Rose asked.

Iris pulled the dart out of her jacket and gave it to Rose. "Take her to the infirmary," Rose ordered. Following that order, Lian carried Mar'i to the infirmary, the other Titans accompanying them. Lian gently laid Mar'i on the cot and placed a hand on her sweaty forehead.

"She's been poisoned," Rose stated matter-of-factly. On the inside, she was panicking. Who had done this to Mar'i? Where were they? Why would they do such a thing to her? When would she have the chance to make them pay for hurting her? On the outside, she knew she had to remain calm, remain strong for the sake of the team. "She's half-Tamaranean and Tamaraneans have a stronger constitution than humans. She's sweating out the poison."

Deathstroke's daughter looked at the dart in her hand. "This dart was obviously poisoned. And you said it was fired at Lian, didn't you, Iris?"

"Yeah," Iris confirmed.

"Then Lian was the real target," Rose said. "Mar'i simply got in the way and paid for it."

Lian looked at Mar'i with a mixture of sadness and impotent fury. "Whoever did this is going to pay," she hissed and in that moment, she reminded Rose of her mothers – the woman who had given birth to her and the woman who had raised her alongside her father.

Robin pulled out a syringe and plunged it into a vein in Mar'i's arm, drawing a blood sample from it. "What are you doing?" Cerdian asked.

"I'm going to see if I can find out what poison or poisons the assailant used on Nightstar," Robin replied. He turned to Iris. "Hand me the dart. I'm going to check the poison or poisons on that, too."

Iris handed Robin the dart and he took that along with the blood sample from Mar'i to the forensics lab set up in Titans Tower. The remaining Titans gazed upon the unconscious and sweaty Mar'i with worried expressions. They were not just worried for Mar'i, though; they were concerned for Lian, too. If Mar'i had ended up this way by going after someone targeting Lian, who knew how far the mysterious assailant would go to get at the archer?

Rose saw Lian pull out her cell phone and flip it open, staring at its screen with an expression of trepidation. "What is it, Lian?" she asked.

Cerdian had wandered over to Lian's side and was currently reading over her shoulder. Rose came to Lian's other side and saw the message, her eye narrowing with fury. The three were reading a text message sent to Lian by someone calling themselves "the Cheshire Cat."

_What happened to your friend was only the beginning. I've been watching you, Lian. Everyone who ever meant anything to you . . . I'm taking them all. Say your goodbyes while you can. Fatally yours, the Cheshire Cat._

* * *

End Notes: Figured I'd end it there. If you're wondering, the Cheshire Cat is not an original character, but the older form of Cheshire's new baby, first seen in the Secret Six miniseries and alluded to in the preceding Villains United. The Cheshire Cat is not even my name for him, but rather the name that my LiveJournal associates Pervyficgirl and Merfilly have given him in their future-set DCU stories. The next chapter will cover Mar'i awakening from the poisoning inflicted on her by the Cheshire Cat.


	6. Part 6

"Illicit, Part 6"

Disclaimer: The future DCU and its characters as depicted here do not belong to me; they belong to DC Comics, which in turn belongs to Time Warner. As I've said before, I have no decision-making or decision-influencing power with either.

Author's note: It's time for the Sleeping Tamaranean Beauty to awaken. And it's also time for the revelation of the Cheshire Cat. Within the time allotted to me, you will see just how dangerous he is. Believe me; he's a dangerous little brat.

* * *

When Mar'i Grayson woke up, the first thing she saw was Rose Wilson, sitting next to her. Mar'i noted that Rose looked very relieved to see her. For that matter, Mar'i was relieved to be awake. Being unconscious wasn't fun, but it was good rest. She even felt some of her strength coming back.

"Hi, Rose," Mar'i greeted.

"Hi, Mar'i," Rose answered. "You feeling ok?"

"I will be," Mar'i replied. "He had claws on the backs of his hands and they were dipped in poison. He scratched me with them when I went after him."

"What were you thinking going after him by yourself?" Rose asked.

"He went after Lian," Mar'i answered. "I wanted to make sure he didn't do it again."

"He's going to," Lian said, "but thanks for the sentiment."

"He's the Cheshire Cat," Cerdian said. "He sent a text message to Lian, telling her that he's going to take away everyone that ever meant anything to her. His words."

"Then it's not just us," Mar'i concluded. "He'll go after Uncle Roy, Aunt Dinah, my dad . . . We have to warn them."

"Already did that," Rose said. "They know to look out for the Cheshire Cat. Did you see what he looked like?"

"The fight happened fast, but I got a good look at him," Mar'i replied. "He was dressed in a black shirt with baggy sleeves and a hood over his head and had a black mask on over the lower half of his face." She looked at Rose and Lian. "How long was I out?"

"A few hours," Rose replied.

At that moment, Robin entered the infirmary. "The poisons used on you were deadly anesthetics. Separately, they wouldn't have done a thing, but together they would have killed a human. Fortunately, you're only half that, so it wasn't lethal to you."

"What was on the dart Iris caught?" Rose asked.

"An anesthetic like the poisons used on Nightstar, but nonfatal," Robin replied. "I don't think he was trying to kill Red Hood that time. If he wanted to, he would have tipped that dart with a _lethal_ toxin. No, he wanted to send a message."

"That he was out there," Lian added. "That he knows who I am. He knows where I go . . ."

"Then you don't go alone," Rose stated. "No one goes out alone. Every time you want to leave this Tower, you go with a fellow Titan. Is that clear?"

"Crystal," Superboy answered.

Mar'i could see a reluctant smile spreading across Lian's face. Along with the mischievous twinkle in her eyes, it gave Mar'i a clue as to what Lian was thinking. It was a look, directed at Cerdian, which did it for Mar'i.

_Oh, X'Hal,_ the Tamaranean hybrid thought. Out loud, "If you're gonna go anywhere with Cerdian, I'm coming with you."

"Why?" Lian asked.

"Chaperone," Mar'i replied. "Someone needs to make sure you don't frighten Cerdian off with your eagerness." She started to push herself off the cot, only to buckle and collapse back onto the cot. "Damn it."

"You're still weak from fighting off the toxins," Rose said.

"I'll go with them if Red Hood's conduct toward Cerdian worries you that much," Robin said to Mar'i.

"Sure, I get to be chaperoned by the psycho," Lian grumbled. "And don't call me Red Hood when we're out in public. Unlike my father, I'd like to maintain some semblance of a secret identity."

"Please," Robin scoffed. "No one who knows you would be surprised to find out that Lian Harper is the one under the hood of Red Hood."

Mar'i groaned. On the one hand, she was happy that Robin was being nicer – probably Superboy's influence. On the other hand, she was worried; he and Lian didn't get along at all. _Bats and Arrows,_ she thought to herself. _Then again, I technically count as a Bat and Lian and I are best friends._

"Sorry you can't join us," Lian remarked to Mar'i.

"I'll live," Mar'i responded. "And try to keep your hands to yourself."

"I'll try to be good," Lian purred. "But I don't know . . . Cerdian does such a good job of bringing out the vixen in me." She turned to Cerdian and Robin, who were still in their costumes. "And are you two going to go with me dressed like that?"

Robin merely shook his head almost derisively and walked out, dragging Cerdian along with him. "Come on, Cerdian," he grumbled. "I'll protect your precious virtue."

* * *

End Notes: The first time that a Mar'i-perspective has been shorter than a Rose-perspective. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the interplay between the characters so far and you will see more of the Cheshire Cat in the chapters to come. In the meantime, feel free to leave a review.


	7. Part 7

"Illicit, Part 7"

Disclaimer: The future DCU and its characters as depicted here belong to DC Comics, which in turn belongs to Time Warner. I have no decision-making power in either, sorry.

Author's note: This chapter is going to be told from the perspectives of Damien, Cerdian, and Lian. The next chapter will be told from both Rose's and Mar'i's perspectives and after that, it'll be back to the status quo of alternating perspectives with Rose and Mar'i.

* * *

Robin went to his room, dropping Cerdian off at his own room before he reached his. Once inside, Robin peeled off his mask, revealing the blue eyes of Damien Wayne. He removed his cape from his shoulders and his gloves from his hands, placing them on the bed along with his mask. He stripped off his utility belt and boots, leaving behind a short-sleeved full-body suit. He found the hidden catch in his suit and undid it, peeling the costume off his body and leaving himself about as naked as he felt.

He went to his closet and looked through it for some clothes to wear. He found a pair of black leather pants and a black T-shirt. He threw on a black jacket with metal plating on the shoulders and slipped a kris inside the pocket. It was a habit Tim had tried to get him to break, but Damien didn't care. He felt naked without a weapon and he couldn't very well go with a Batarang without compromising his secret identity.

Donning a pair of steel-toed boots and satisfied with his appearance, Damien exited his room and went to find Cerdian. The Atlantean boy was dressed in a blue button-up shirt and black jeans with black-trimmed white sneakers. Damien gave him the once-over and decided that despite the younger boy's hesitance, he would be just fine. The two didn't have to go far to find Lian; the archer had found them first. She was dressed to kill in a red halter top and gray hot pants with thigh-high black boots that were fastened on by thick zippers and buckles at the top. She smirked at Damien and Cerdian.

"Aren't you two looking good?" she remarked.

"Let's go," Damien grumbled. Beside him, Cerdian blushed.

Later, the three were out of Titans Tower and walking through the city. "Where are we going?" Damien asked.

"I'm keeping it a surprise," Lian replied, walking ahead of the two boys. Her hips swayed alluringly as she walked, drawing Cerdian's attention – somewhat against his will – to her backside. Unbeknownst to him, but not to Damien, Lian was perfectly aware of what she was doing to the younger boy. _That's it, Cerdian. Look as much as you like. If you're good, I'll let you touch._

The trio eventually made it to a warehouse that had been revamped as a hotspot for teen partygoers. Cerdian looked rather nervous once he took a peep inside. Damien rolled his eyes slightly before Lian dragged him and Cerdian inside. Inside was a cacophony of multicolored strobe lights, occasionally and haphazardly illuminating gyrating bodies while industrial electronic music blasted from the wall speakers. Lian grinned and dragged a terrified Cerdian behind her onto the dance floor. Damien groaned to himself and followed them, determined to keep his word to Mar'i.

Lian wrapped her arms around Cerdian and began to dance, grinding softly against him. Cerdian blushed a heavy scarlet, the coloring of his face disguised by the multicolored lights. Against his will, he felt himself responding to Lian's touch and, suddenly possessed by a boldness that would have been regarded by those who knew him as uncharacteristic, pulled Lian closer to him. Lian's eyes widened in surprise before narrowing lustfully, a purr of approval escaping her lips. She undulated sensuously against Cerdian, the younger boy moving along with her.

Damien watched with a slight smirk of approval, but kept his eye on the two in case the Cheshire Cat decided it was a good time to strike. He felt a tugging on his leather-jacketed arm and turned to see a girl with electric blue hair styled into wire-like braids and dressed in a one-sleeved black suit jacket with the middle buttons closed over an open white shirt and a black tie hanging loosely from the collar. The girl wore black pants so tight that she had to leave them unbuttoned and partly unzipped. The reason her suit jacket was one-sleeved was that her left arm was a cyber-limb.

"You're kinda cute," the cyber-limbed girl purred. "Wanna dance?"

Damien gave her the once-over. She wasn't unattractive by any means. She had an unconventional look, but she wasn't unattractive at all. The cyber-limb had some . . . interesting possibilities if he were to go that far with her.

_Great,_ he snarled internally. _Now I'm thinking like Harper. What Tim was thinking putting me on a Titans team with her, I don't know._

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Kei," the girl replied. "Yours?"

"Damien," the Dark Squire answered and pulled her into his arms, moving gracefully with her. To his surprise, he was enjoying dancing with her. He was expecting to just chaperone Lian and Cerdian and just utterly hate being there, but he was coming to discover that he liked being there. What a difference a strangely dressed girl with a cyber-limb made. He peered over Kei's shoulder and spotted several young men and women garbed in chrome-plated leather clothes moving toward Lian and Cerdian. His eyes narrowed.

"What's wrong, Damien?" Kei asked.

"My friends might be in trouble," Damien replied.

"Cutting in," one of the chromed-out young men said, pulling Lian away from Cerdian as one of his companions moved to restrain Cerdian. Lian's response was to stomp his foot and viciously slam her elbow into his stomach. Unfortunately for her, neither did any good for her; it was like striking a brick wall. Granted, she knew some martial artists who would probably be capable of shattering a brick wall, but she was not one of them.

_Aw, crap,_ Lian thought. _He's a metahuman._

Cerdian was more successful in breaking free from his capturer, although that was due to the fact that his Atlantean physiology granted him superhuman strength. He proceeded to deliver a swift kick to the chromed-out young man who had been holding him, only for that kick to be dodged. Fortunately, his partner's surprise at what had befallen him loosened his grip enough to allow Lian to slip loose and rejoin Cerdian. The chromed-out teens charged the two teen heroes, only for one of them to be pierced in the nape by Damien's kris. The boy went into spasms and collapsed.

"What . . . ?" Cerdian uttered. "Damien?"

"Take a good look at the back of their necks," Damien answered tersely.

Lian looked at the nape of the boy Damien had just apparently stabbed. A sparking metal circle was attached to the base of the boy's neck. "Wetware," she concluded.

"What's wetware?" Cerdian asked.

"The circle on the back of his neck is a neural interface controlling the cybernetics woven throughout their bodies," Damien explained. "_That's_ wetware."

"That explains their strength," Cerdian said, just as he dodged a punch from a chromed-out girl. He dropped low and swept his leg out to trip her, but she was better than he expected, jumping over his leg and kicking him while he was still low. Cerdian rolled onto his feet as he was swarmed by more wetware-enhanced teens. Damien and Lian would have helped him, but they had their own attackers to deal with. Even worse, neither Damien nor Lian had any superhuman abilities and they had to fight several people who were superhumanly strong and fast.

Damien slashed at the chromed ones attacking him with his kris, only for his swings to be dodged almost mockingly. One of them grabbed Damien's wrist and used it to hold him while kneeing him in the solar plexus with enough force to knock the breath out of him. To his credit, Damien didn't crumple to the floor, instead choosing to wrap his arms around his assailant's leg. He threw himself backward, taking his assailant with him and wedging a leg between them, using said leg to kick him off.

Lian weaved between punches and kicks from the chromed teens, relying on her training and experience to see her through. Whenever she couldn't dodge, she blocked, and whenever possible, she attacked. Fortunately for her, constantly moving kept her almost untouchable by the chromed ones for all their enhanced strength and speed. It was a little something from Dick that actually stuck with her. Leaping and flipping and contorting about allowed her to stay just a half-step ahead of her foes.

"Stay still, you bitch!" one of them yelled.

Lian's answer was to kick her hard in the back of the neck, contorting to punch another one of her assailants in the back of his neck. "How about no?" she answered.

Cerdian fought his way through his chromed attackers, easily matching them in strength and just slightly outdoing them in speed. Additionally, he did have some telekinesis to aid him, allowing him to generate shields of psionic energy to block their strikes whenever he couldn't simply dodge. He also managed to wedge some of that psionic energy into the nodes in the backs of their necks, scrambling the cybernetics in their bodies. This triggered spasms in all of his attackers, making them collapse.

Whereas Lian's style was unpredictable yet graceful in its movements, Damien's style relied on swift brutality. The first chance he got, he stabbed one of his attackers in the node on her neck, sending her into spasms that ended in her unconsciousness. Another one tried to jump him, but he flipped over him and threw a three-pronged shuriken at the node in his neck. The shuriken hit its mark and knocked him unconscious, too. Damien landed with a brutal descending kick to another attacker, elbowing him in the node on his neck. He flipped off him and kicked two more in the nodes on their necks, moving and fighting more like a demon. Eventually, he felled all but one of them.

That one, he grabbed by the collar of his jacket and asked, "Who sent you?"

"The Cheshire Cat," the chromed-out teen spat before he suddenly went into spasms.

"What?" Damien uttered. "I didn't . . ." He snarled. "The Cheshire Cat . . . damn him." He threw aside the now-unconscious wetware user and went to Lian and Cerdian. "Are you two all right?"

"We're fine," Lian replied.

Kei looked around. Unlike most of the other patrons, she had stayed for the fight. Seeing Damien fight like that was awesome, scary, and quite a bit of a turn-on. His friends weren't too bad, either, although the younger boy seemed to be some kind of meta.

"You stayed?" Damien asked in puzzlement.

"Yeah," Kei replied. "I kinda wanted to jump in and help, but it seemed like you guys were handling them just fine on your own. What martial arts school did you study in to get that good?"

"No school here teaches what you need to know for the kind of combat we regularly engage in," Damien answered. "If you know what's good for you, you'll stay away from me. I'm a dangerous person to know." He aimed a sharp look at Lian and Cerdian and they moved to follow him out of the club, leaving behind a perplexed and annoyed Kei.

* * *

End Notes: There you have it. It's the return of bastard!Damien. Hopefully, you liked Lian and Cerdian's interaction and for those of you that actually liked her, Kei will make an appearance in the future of this ficlet series. Next chapter will be all (or mostly) Rose/Mar'i. I hope.


	8. Part 8

"Illicit, Part 8"

Disclaimer: The future DCU and its characters as depicted here belong to DC Comics, which is in turn owned by Time Warner. Unfortunately, I have no decision-making power with either.

Author's note: And now we can get back to the main focus of this series, which is the budding romance between Mar'i and Rose. I know you've been dying for some more of that, so I'm going to give it to you.

* * *

"The last time I saw you was at your mother's funeral," Rose mentioned.

"A lot's changed since then," Mar'i answered wistfully.

"Tell me about it," Rose said. _In more ways than one,_ she silently added. Catching Mar'i's pause, she spoke aloud again. "I mean it. Tell me about it."

"Sure," Mar'i conceded. "I have nothing else to do but lie in this cot until I get my strength back, so I might as well regale you with the tales of my life . . ."

_After the funeral, things changed between my dad and me. He became distant, would act as though he barely noticed I was there. When he did pay attention to me, he was very strict with me. I had to come directly home from school before I went anywhere else and after that, I couldn't be out of the house past a certain time. He would always stay out late patrolling and find excuses to leave me with babysitters, as though he couldn't bear being around me._

_The older I got, the worse it got. He started taking stupid risks while he was out there, almost as if he was looking for an excuse to die. One night, he came home with a bullet hole in his shoulder. I tried to help him, but he wouldn't let me . . . I was eleven years old at the time, just waiting for him to come home._

_Then I heard him come in, but he did it more clumsily than I was accustomed to from him. I heard him drop on one knee and I ran inside his room to see what was wrong. "Dad?" I asked. "Are you hurt?"_

"_I'm fine, Mar'i," my dad answered. "Go back to bed."_

_I noticed him moving about in the dark, trying to conceal himself from me. It was pretty much useless to do so, since I had very good night vision. I noticed that he was bleeding from the shoulder and I went to him. "Let me help," I pleaded._

"_I'm fine, Mar'i," my dad repeated. "Go back to bed." As he said that, he opened his closet and then the hidden door behind his clothes. It slid back to reveal the storage for his equipment, where he pulled out a small tube and a two-pronged device. He stripped off the top half of his costume, letting it hang down around his waist, and inserted the device into the hole in his shoulder. He put the tube partway into his mouth and bit down before pushing the device's prongs to widen the hole in his shoulder. He slid the device further inside the hole and several seconds later, he pulled a bloody bullet out. His voice was quiet yet it resounded in my ears like the sound of gunfire. "I told you to go back to bed."_

_A year later, my dad put away his costume for good and started to train me in fighting and acrobatics. He was, to put it mildly, a harsh teacher. He pushed me farther than anybody ought to push their kid and I was determined to please him. He was finally showing me some attention and I wanted so desperately to be worthy of it. Even when he wasn't training me, I was training myself . . . and with Uncle Jason._

_Uncle Jason was different from my dad. He pushed me like my dad did, but he wasn't harsh about it like my dad was. He had lots of fun at my expense, but he wasn't mean-spirited about it. Of course, he did have his own cracks to make about my dad, which I didn't like at all. I could see some of the truth in them, but nobody likes people insulting their dads, even if those people are their brothers._

_When I was fourteen years old, I put on my costume and began fighting crime in the city. I decided to take up Hell's Kitchen as my territory and those were some rough criminals. No match for me, of course, but rough. Sometimes, I'd work with Uncle Tim and that was how I met Damien. He was a jerk, just like he is now._

"He's not that much of a jerk," Rose commented. "If he was, he wouldn't have offered to cover for you with Lian and Cerdian. And I've seen him with Chris. They wouldn't be so tight if Damien was that much of a jerk."

"I don't know," Mar'i mused. "I almost think there's something going on between them."

"You're not alone," Rose mentioned. "I happened to overhear Lian and Iris talking about them and they said that maybe the reason Damien won't let Helena touch him with a ten-foot pole is that he's already spoken for, if you get my drift." A mischievous smile crossed her face.

"What about you, Rose?" Mar'i asked. "How have you been since the funeral?"

"I've done a lot of changing," Rose replied. "Joey helped me with that. Before he came back, I didn't feel like the other Titans accepted me or wanted anything to do with me. I felt like the only reason I was there was on your father's word and if not for that, they wouldn't have let me in at all. Then Raven resurrected Joey and that eased the tension between me and the other Titans.

"Raven was a great help, too. Being around her helped . . . cleanse me, for lack of a better word. And we . . . we got very close."

"How close is very close?" Mar'i inquired softly, jealousy edging into her tone. To be frank, she shouldn't have been jealous; Rose was likely to have had lovers in the past. Still, it bit at her inside to suspect that someone had been with Rose before her.

"That close," Rose answered, holding her index finger and thumb just a centimeter apart. "She and Joey gave me the acceptance I wanted from the Titans and in time, the others came to accept me. I never quite got along with Cassie, though; we were able to tolerate each other, but we never quite had a stable relationship. Sometimes, we'd be able to open up to each other; other times, we could barely stand the sight of each other."

"What about you and Uncle Tim?" Mar'i asked.

"We tried it," Rose answered. "Oh, how we tried it. In different positions, from different angles, every moment we got. Of course, he had to be an asshole and not truly open himself up to me. I could barely get his first name out of him. I knew what he liked in bed, but he was extremely private outside of the bed."

Mar'i looked up at Rose and sat up. She looked Rose in the eye and said, "I missed you."

"I missed you, too," Rose whispered. "I wish I hadn't missed out on so much of your life after your mother's death."

"It's ok," Mar'i answered. "I'm just happy I could see you again." She leaned over to Rose and, before Rose could stop her, kissed the older woman on the lips. Rose attempted to pull away, but Mar'i had snaked a hand around and onto the back of her head, keeping her from pulling back. With nothing else to do and realizing that this was what she wanted anyway, she kissed Mar'i back.

* * *

End Notes: And here is where I end this chapter. It seems that both Mar'i and Rose have gotten what they want, but how long will it last? And with the threat of the Cheshire Cat hanging over the Titans' shoulders, how long will it be until those close to Lian are in danger, too? In the meantime, feel free to drop a review.


	9. Part 9

"Illicit, Part 9"

Disclaimer: The future DCU and its characters as depicted here do not belong to me; they belong to DC Comics, which in turn belongs to Time Warner.

Author's note: Finally, Rose and Mar'i have kissed, but what does that portend for their relationship and how long can they keep it under wraps? How long will it be until the Cheshire Cat strikes again, and where will he strike? To find the answers to those questions, you will simply have to continue reading.

* * *

Rose didn't know how long she'd been kissing Mar'i, but somewhere between the time their lips first touched and the present, she had found herself straddling Mar'i on her cot. Mar'i leaned into the kiss, pressing and rubbing herself against Rose with a passionate yearning. A tongue much like sandpaper found itself in Rose's mouth and while the texture was strange, it was also somewhat arousing. She sucked on Mar'i's tongue, drawing a purring moan from the younger of the two females.

Finally, they broke the kiss, Rose gazing at Mar'i with a smoldering blue eye. Mar'i's emerald eyes smoldered as well and she pulled Rose into another kiss. Rose would have gasped at the passion Mar'i was demonstrating, but her mouth was otherwise occupied. She somehow found the strength to pull away, but Mar'i's mouth instead attacked the hollow of her throat. Rose gasped out Mar'i's name, the sound of it music to Mar'i's sensitive ears.

Before they could go too far, both their ears caught the sound of footsteps making their way toward the infirmary. Rose reluctantly removed herself from Mar'i and sat back in her seat, while Mar'i resumed lying down on the cot. Mar'i turned in her cot and saw Damien enter.

"You're glowing," Damien spoke.

"What is it, Damien?" Rose asked.

"We were attacked," Damien replied. "They were working for the Cheshire Cat. That's all I managed to get out of the last one left standing before the Cheshire Cat set off his kill switch."

"Kill switch?" Rose echoed. "They were androids?"

"No," Damien contradicted, "cyborgs."

"Is there something you're not telling us?" Mar'i asked.

"No, what?" Damien asked defiantly.

"You met someone, didn't you?" Mar'i surmised.

"I did, so?" Damien asked.

"What would Helena say if she knew you were gallivanting about in San Fran with some other girl?" Mar'i asked.

"We're not together," Damien replied bluntly. "And I don't intend to get together with this one, either."

"Why not?" Mar'i asked. "Nothing wrong with making a friend while you're down here."

"I don't need friends," Damien answered.

"But you have Chris," Mar'i rejoined. "And you two are pretty good friends . . . or are you saying that you don't need friends because you and he are more than friends?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Damien replied stonily before walking out of the infirmary.

Mar'i and Rose had a good chuckle. "I wonder how long it'll take before he figures it out," Rose remarked.

"That he and Chris go together like Butch and Sundance?" Mar'i finished.

"Except which one's Butch and which one's Sundance?" Rose asked, prompting a musical giggle from Mar'i. She looked upon the half-Tamaranean with a serious expression. "We'll have to keep this a secret, Mar'i."

"That Damien and Chris want each other badly?" Mar'i surmised. "That's not too much of a secret."

"No, between us," Rose amended somberly. "We can't be public with this."

"Why not?" Mar'i asked softly, a look of hurt on her face.

"I'm supposed to be mentoring you," Rose replied. "To anyone else, a romantic relationship between us will look like I'm taking advantage of you."

"Didn't stop you from going after my dad all those years back," Mar'i retorted.

"I was 16 years old," Rose answered. "So are you. And I'm getting close to thirty."

"Why did you kiss me back, if you were so certain that this was wrong?" Mar'i questioned, her emerald eyes burning into Rose.

"Because I want you," Rose replied. "Because I've wanted you since I saw you again. Because somehow, the wrongness of what we're doing just excites me like not many things have in years."

Mar'i's eyes narrowed and then she sprang from the bed like a big cat, pouncing on Rose and kissing her with enough force to bruise her lips. Yes, they were supposed to keep their relationship a secret, but the bruises would fade soon. For the moment, Rose simply surrendered to the ecstasy of the moment, gasping Mar'i's name as her nerve endings were set ablaze by Mar'i's kisses.

"Ah . . . Mar'i . . ." Rose uttered with breathless arousal.

"Am I interrupting?" a silky voice asked, causing Mar'i to pull herself off Rose and glare jealously at the intruder. Rose twisted in Mar'i's arms to look at the intruder. "Sorry to spoil your foreplay."

"Olivia," Rose greeted, "what are you doing here?"

* * *

End Notes: How's that for a cliffhanger? If you're wondering who Olivia is, rest assured that she is not an OC. Her identity will be revealed and elaborated on in the next installment of this ficlet series. In the meantime, feel free to drop a review.


	10. Part 10

"Illicit, Part 10"

Disclaimer: The future DCU and its characters as depicted here do not belong to me. They belong to DC Comics, which in turn belongs to Time Warner. I have no decision-making power with either.

Author's note: A shame I couldn't let Mar'i and Rose get that far, wasn't it? For one, it's a T-rated story; for another, Olivia's interruption will prove rather important later on. I can always whip up a special adult-rated scene between Mar'i and Rose for your liking if you wish. In the meantime, just read on.

* * *

Rose and Mar'i looked upon the intruder, who was none other than Olivia Queen, the Hypertime-tossed daughter of Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance. The blonde was dressed in a black leather half-jacket over a skintight sleeveless black motorcycle suit with blue siding. The motorcycle suit was partly unzipped, just far enough to reveal her cleavage, and clung to every sensuous curve and line on her body. The irony was that chronologically, Olivia was far too young to be wearing such attire or be such a temptress.

Olivia should have been only eight years old, except being lost in the timestream with time-jaunting vigilantes had made her closer to Rose's age. When she had returned to her native timeline, it had only been days since her disappearance, but she was 18 years old, enhanced by cybernetic implants, and a deadly fighter on the level of either of her parents or her adoptive sister Sin. To the shock of her parents, she had returned solely to kill Deathstroke, as she had been convinced that Deathstroke would be responsible for a crime that would devastate Earth's heroes.

The Arrow and Bat clans had come together to try to stop Olivia, only to discover that Olivia was every bit as tenacious as her parents. Despite their best efforts, Olivia had made her way to Deathstroke, only to find him defended by Jericho and Ravager, who did not want to see their father die despite the crimes he had committed. In the process of that particular battle, Olivia's time-jaunt equipment had been damaged. As a result of that, she had been trapped in this time and reality, leaving her parents to adjust to the fact that their baby girl had become a young woman before her time.

It hadn't been an easy transition. Ollie and Dinah were beside themselves trying to figure out how to deal with a daughter that they didn't quite recognize. Despite that, it wasn't that hard to see elements of themselves in her. She had her father's eyes, a spirited green but customarily highlighted by black eye shadow, and her mother's smile . . . when she did smile, that was.

Olivia Queen, presently Black Queen's Knight of Checkmate, smirked with black lipstick-coated lips at Rose and Mar'i. "Why, Rose, I didn't know you liked them young," she remarked.

"You didn't answer my question," Rose retorted.

"I'm here with information," Olivia said. "On the Cheshire Cat."

"Spill," Mar'i spat.

"The brat went after Sin," Olivia answered. "Nearly killed her, although to be fair, she quite nearly ripped his throat out."

"He went after Sin?" Rose asked.

"Yes," Olivia confirmed. "And she wasn't even the last on his list of targets. He also slashed my mother's vocal cords and sucker-punched my father out a window."

"Are they all right?" Mar'i asked.

"They're both getting treatment from Dr. Mid-Nite as we speak," Olivia replied.

"Damien, Lian, and Cerdian were attacked by a gang of cyborgs working for the Cheshire Cat," Rose supplied.

"He'll eventually make his way to Roy and Dick," Olivia said.

"Then we have to get to them before the Cheshire Cat does," Rose concluded.

At that moment, the other Titans entered the infirmary. "Olivia . . . what are you doing here?" Lian asked.

"Warning you," Olivia replied. "The Cheshire Cat went after Sin and my parents. And he'll eventually go after Roy and Dick."

Lian was beside herself with horror. "Why . . . why is he after me? Why is he going after . . . ?"

"It's his sick little strategy," Olivia replied. "He wants to break you before he kills you. As for why he wants you dead, does the name Thomas Nguyen ring a bell?"

"Thomas Nguyen?" Lian repeated. "He's the Cheshire Cat?"

"Yes," Olivia confirmed. "And guess how you two are connected."

Lian's eyes widened with horror. "Cheshire . . . my mother . . . had another kid?"

"Yes, your half-brother," Olivia supplied. "Raised to be the killer Cheshire wanted you to be."

Lian clenched her fists so tightly blood began to seep out of her palms. "He's not going to get to my father and Uncle Dick. I'll make sure of that, even if I have to put an arrow through that twisted piece of crap he calls a heart."

* * *

End Notes: I suppose here is a good place to end this. The next pair of chapters will cover the Titans trying their best to protect Roy and Dick . . . and will Catman make an appearance? After all, he's as responsible for Thomas Nguyen's existence as Cheshire; he supplied the seed, after all. In the meantime, let me know what you think so far.


	11. Part 11

"Illicit, Chapter 11"

Disclaimer: The future DCU and its characters as depicted here belong to DC Comics, not me. DC Comics, in turn, belongs to Time Warner and I have no decision-making power with either. Sorry.

Author's note: It's down to the wire now. The confrontation with the Cheshire Cat and Cheshire is coming and I'll be diverting my focus again. This chapter will cover the Titans' attempt to protect Dick and the next chapter will cover their attempt to protect Roy.

* * *

"I'll take Lian with me to go to Roy," Olivia suggested.

"We need to be together on this," Rose said.

"We can't be two places at once," Damien spoke up. "Just because the Cheshire Cat goes after one of them in person doesn't mean he won't send someone after the other. We need to be able to protect them both."

"He has a point," Chris agreed.

"Yes," Rose admitted. "I'm taking Nightstar, Robin, and Superboy with me to Dick. Olivia, you'll take Red Hood, Cerdian, and Kid Flash to Roy."

"That sounds good," Olivia agreed.

"In the meantime, we have to get dressed properly," Rose said.

The Titans quickly changed into their costumes and met up with Olivia once they were fully costumed. They went down to the vehicle bay of Titans Tower and entered a modified Tamaranean fighter, Ravager taking the pilot's chair. Olivia took the seat beside Ravager, beating a jealous Nightstar to the punch. Of course, Nightstar simply sat behind Ravager, while Red Hood sat behind Olivia and the other Titans took their seats inside the Tamaranean fighter.

"I'm going to drop you, Red Hood, Cerdian, and Kid Flash off by Roy's place," Ravager said to Olivia. "Sound good to you?"

"Yeah," Olivia answered.

After doing exactly that, Ravager continued on to New York City. The fighter craft was in stealth mode, with its engines quiet and invisible to radar, as it flew. After all, they didn't need to be stopped by the Air Force while Dick was in danger. The fighter craft moved at supersonic speed, crossing the distance between the two coasts within minutes. Once over New York City, Ravager landed the craft in an isolated lot and opened the hatch, stepping out with Nightstar, Robin, and Superboy following.

"Time to fly," Ravager said, taking Nightstar's hand. The Tamaranean hybrid flew up while holding on to Ravager. Beside her, Superboy flew while holding on to Robin. Nightstar and Superboy flew swiftly yet carefully; the higher speeds they could achieve were not survivable by Ravager and Robin, even with the armor both wore. Still, they managed to make it to Dick's apartment.

When they arrived, the apartment was a scene of chaos. Dick was leaping about, fighting the Cheshire Cat, who was garbed in a black shirt with wide sleeves that nearly concealed his hands and black long shorts with bindings around his shins. Dick picked up a tablecloth and threw it at the Cheshire Cat to blind him, but the Cheshire Cat sliced through it with his claws. However, the tablecloth had given Dick enough breathing room to tag the young assassin.

"Dad!" Nightstar cried out.

Dick whirled to see Nightstar, only to get kneed by the Cheshire Cat. Dick grabbed the Cheshire Cat and tossed him, but the Cheshire Cat flipped and balanced himself on the chandelier. Robin threw a Batarang at the Cheshire Cat, only for the Cheshire Cat to jump off the chandelier and attack Robin with his claws. To the surprise of everyone present, Robin pulled a sword out from beneath his cape and used it to block the claws. Then he kicked the Cheshire Cat in the stomach, knocking him backward. Pressing his advantage, he slashed the Cheshire Cat with his sword, only to find himself unable to cut through the cloth of the Cheshire Cat's outfit.

The Cheshire Cat retaliated with a slice to the part of Robin's arm that wasn't covered by his glove or sleeve. Robin ducked under the swing and swept his leg out to drop the Cheshire Cat on his backside. Unfortunately for him, the Cheshire Cat jumped over his leg and kicked him while he was still low. Robin grabbed his foot and pushed the Cheshire Cat away from him. The Cheshire Cat flipped backward, only to be caught by a super-speeding Superboy. The Cheshire Cat attempted to slice him with his claws, but he only cut through the cloth of Superboy's outfit and not the invulnerable flesh beneath.

"Got you," the Kryptonian teen said.

"You think?" the Cheshire Cat asked, pulling out a pellet from his belt and tossing it to the ground where it burst, releasing a noxious gas.

Superboy dropped the Cheshire Cat and shouted, "Open a window!"

"The window's already open!" Dick shouted. "The Cheshire Cat broke it!"

Superboy whirled around at super-speed, gathering the noxious gas to him. The gas was pulled toward him as he flew out the window, still spinning at super-speed. He flew as high as he could, which was pretty high. In fact, it was so high that he reached the upper atmosphere, where the gas finally began to dissipate. He kept flying, exceeding the grasp of Earth's gravity and escaping into space, the gas finally breaking apart in Earth's stratosphere.

When the Teen of Steel made his way back to Dick's apartment, he found the Cheshire Cat fighting Dick, Ravager, Nightstar, and Robin, the four assaulting him from multiple angles. The Cheshire Cat dodged Dick's kick and evaded a swing of one of Ravager's katana blades. He swung his claws at Nightstar, who flipped into the air and moved over for Robin to slash him with his sword. The Cheshire Cat barely moved out of the way of the sword, managing to get nicked in the cheek by the blade.

The Cheshire Cat somersaulted backward and attached himself to the wall via magnetic clamps on the soles of his open-toed boots. He sprang from the wall toward Dick, only to be smacked by a hard punch from Nightstar. The Cheshire Cat tumbled on the floor like a rag doll, but rolled back onto his feet and sprang at Nightstar. This time, Ravager kicked him hard in the stomach, her chemically enhanced strength knocking the breath out of him. The Cheshire Cat crumpled onto the ground, seemingly done for.

"We shouldn't get near him," Ravager said. "Not without being extremely careful."

Superboy X-rayed the Cheshire Cat. "There are concealed weapons on his person. Poison dispensers, meant to get anyone that touches him and activated by synaptic controls."

"Synaptic controls," Nightstar echoed. "As in he could kill anybody who touches him just by thinking it."

"He's playing possum," Robin concluded. "Hoping one of us takes the bait."

"I'll do it," Superboy said. "I didn't see Kryptonite on his person, but then he might just have lead on him."

Robin placed a hand on Superboy's shoulder. "Be careful."

Superboy nodded once and looked at Robin. "I'm going to need your restraint cord."

Robin opened his utility belt and pulled out a coiled length of steel-strong flexible cord. Superboy took the cord and wrapped it around the Cheshire Cat at super-speed, binding him. "You can drop the act," he said to the younger boy. "We know you're still conscious. Now . . . why are you after Red Hood?"

"It's a contest," the Cheshire Cat spat. "Strip the first child of everything and see if she can endure against the second without those things." He looked up maliciously at Nightstar. "You're looking healthy. Must be the alien side of you." Getting only an icy stare from Nightstar, the young assassin went on. "As we speak . . . my mother is killing Roy Harper."

* * *

End Notes: Might as well end it there. I like cliffhangers; they leave my readers wondering what's going to happen next. The next chapter covers Lian's efforts – aided by Olivia, Cerdian, and Kid Flash – to protect her father from her mother. Whether she succeeds or not I will reveal in that chapter. Don't worry; there will be a showdown between her and the Cheshire Cat later. In the meantime, feel free to drop a review.


	12. Part 12

"Illicit, Part 12"

Disclaimer: The future DCU and its inhabitants as depicted here do not belong to me. They belong to DC Comics, which in turn belongs to Time Warner, and I have no decision-shaping power with either. Sorry.

Author's note: Here's the Roy angle I promised for this chapter. Don't worry; there will still be a Red Hood/Cheshire Cat showdown after this.

* * *

Crossbow bolts flew at a dark-haired woman clad in green. The green-garbed woman dodged the bolts and threw darts at the man who had fired those bolts. The man, a redhead with fierce green eyes, dodged the darts and retaliated with more crossbow bolts. The two combatants – Roy Harper and Cheshire – stayed long-range, mainly due to Roy's efforts. After all, Cheshire was poisonous in more ways than one and the only good thing to come out of her was Lian.

Roy found a set of sharpened pencils and threw them at her like darts. One of the pencils managed to strike her, barely slowing her down. However, that split-second delay was enough for him to find a pair of scissors and throw them at her as well. Cheshire dodged them as well and Roy found some paper clips, bending them into straight lines and throwing them at the assassin.

"What's going on, Chesh?" Roy asked.

"I am preparing my son to take my place," Cheshire replied. "By completely ridding the world of all traces of my daughter."

"Lian?" Roy uttered. "You're trying to kill Lian? Why?"

"She's a failed experiment," Cheshire answered. "I wanted an heir. You took her from me, made her more like you. I can no longer find a use for her. My son will have to suffice, and suffice he will."

Roy was stunned into silence and that was the moment Cheshire needed to slice his cheek with a poisoned nail. As soon as Roy felt her nail touch his cheek, he dodged her second slice. He didn't feel any negative effects _yet,_ emphasis on "yet"; Cheshire sometimes toyed with her targets by giving them a poison that could only be activated by a second chemical agent. If this was such a case, he had to stay out of range and never give her a second chance to get that close.

The marksman reloaded his hand crossbow and fired the bolts at Cheshire, hoping to give her pause. Cheshire simply dodged acrobatically, moving almost like a demonic mannequin due to her unusual contortions. She threw poisoned darts at Roy, who threw himself into overdrive dodging them. He wasn't the natural acrobat Dick was, but his own battle-trained reflexes would suffice . . . he hoped. He picked up his house keys and threw them at Cheshire's throat, hoping to knock the wind out of her.

This was the scene that Olivia, Red Hood, Cerdian, and Kid Flash happened upon. Olivia let out her "Canary Tweet," a similar power to her mother's "Canary Cry" but a hypersonic whistle instead of a scream. The high-pitched whistle nearly shattered Cerdian's eardrums, blinding him as well, and it certainly disoriented everyone else present. Olivia sped toward the addled Cheshire and slammed her into the wall.

"Dinah's other brat," Cheshire uttered with a smirk. "You've certainly gone a long way from the nest."

"I don't see why you're smiling, bitch," Olivia sneered.

"I'm smiling because you shouldn't be this close to me," Cheshire answered. "Aren't you time travelers supposed to know those things in advance?" The next thing Olivia knew, she was stabbed by Cheshire's hidden poison dispensers. She fell off Cheshire, going into seizures on the floor. She clutched at her throat, feeling as though she was suffocating.

"Olivia!" Roy shouted.

Red Hood withdrew her bow, nocked her arrow, and released right at Cheshire's stomach. The arrow hit its mark, its head embedding itself in Cheshire's stomach. Cheshire gripped the shaft of the arrow and pulled the arrow out of her stomach, grimacing and smiling simultaneously. "So you have some killer in you," she purred. "Maybe you aren't such a hopeless case. I'll only know for certain when your brother comes."

Red Hood glared furiously at Cheshire. "Is that what it's about? Pitting your children against each other to see who's better?"

"In a nutshell, yes," Cheshire confirmed.

"You're sick, lady," Kid Flash spat out her conclusion as to Cheshire's character.

"Someone has to continue on for me," Cheshire answered coolly. "Why should I entrust the name of the Cheshire Cat to someone who isn't qualified for it?"

"You have the antidote for that poison you gave Olivia on you, don't you?" Red Hood surmised.

"I do, but the only way she's getting it is if you defeat your brother in battle," Cheshire answered. "Don't worry, Lian. It's a slow-acting poison; she'll have plenty of time to suffer before she dies."

"You –" Red Hood uttered. Unable to finish, she vented her rage at her mother's callousness by charging at Cheshire.

"Lian, don't!" Cerdian exclaimed.

Cheshire merely grabbed Red Hood's outstretched arm and spun her into a throw that sent her crashing into a wall. Red Hood crumpled to the floor, only to get up again and remove shuriken from a hidden compartment in her quiver. She threw those shuriken at Cheshire, who dodged them all with triple-jointed agility and flexibility. Cheshire was about to attack, but then she paused, smirking at her first child.

"What are you smirking about, you bitch?" Red Hood asked.

"That's not the way you respect your mother, Lian," Cheshire chided.

"Please," Red Hood spat. "You were no mother to me. Dinah was more of a mother than you ever were."

"Your brother is coming," Cheshire said, her tone not betraying her rage.

Indeed, the Cheshire Cat had come. Granted, he had come wrapped in steel-strong flexible cord, courtesy of Robin and Superboy, but he had come. Nightstar and Ravager flanked him, along with Robin and Superboy holding him fast. Actually, Superboy alone could have held the Cheshire Cat, but Robin felt the need to let the young assassin know that Superboy wasn't the only one he had to worry about.

"You can release him now," Cheshire spoke.

"And why should we do that?" Nightstar asked.

"Because Dinah's girl is dying slowly from one of my poisons, I have the antidote, and if Lian wins against the Cheshire Cat, I will give it to you," Cheshire replied as though she were reading her grocery list.

"We don't have a choice," Red Hood answered. "Besides, the little brat has a lot of suffering to do and it's only fair that his big sister be the one to dispense it."

"If you wish," Superboy answered and cut the Cheshire Cat out of his restraints with precisely targeted heat vision. The Cheshire Cat sprang loose and lunged at Red Hood with his poisoned claws out. Red Hood dodged and grabbed her half-brother by the back of his shirt. He used that to swing at her with his claws, forcing her to drop him and spin out of the way. She swept her leg out as she spun, hoping to trip him, but he jumped over her leg. She threw herself into a one-handed cartwheel to evade his kick and jumped up to kick him again.

The Cheshire Cat evaded the kick and lunged at Red Hood. "They'll never be safe as long as I am alive," he taunted her. The taunt slipped just barely under Red Hood's skin, just enough for him to slice her cheek with the claws on his outstretched hand. She dodged the swing from his other hand, grabbing his wrist and pulling him close for a knee to the gut. She slammed her elbow into his spine, knocking him low. Unfortunately for her, he landed on his hands and feet and sprang into a rolling aerial kick with a surprising amount of force behind it.

Red Hood stumbled back, the Cheshire Cat pressing his advantage with a clawed punch. Red Hood bent backward to evade the punch and kicked his outstretched arm as she did so, knocking his swing off-balance. She shifted her weight onto her hands and flipped back onto her feet, charging her half-brother and striking him with swift and precise blows aimed at his body's weak spots. She finished with a hard kick to his throat, nearly crushing his windpipe. The Cheshire Cat coughed and stumbled back, but Red Hood wouldn't let up on him, tackling him to the ground and pinning his hands above his head so he couldn't slice her again.

"Go ahead," Cheshire prompted. "Kill him. Kill him and prove that you, not he, should be the Cheshire Cat."

Red Hood looked at Cheshire and said, "No. I'm not like you. I'm not a murderer."

"Not even to save your 'real' mother's child?" Cheshire asked.

"I have him pinned," Red Hood answered. "He's beaten."

"You think so?" the Cheshire Cat asked. Suddenly, Red Hood was flung off the Cheshire Cat and the Cheshire Cat found that his poison dispensers had pierced Cerdian instead. "What?"

"I'm just that fast," Cerdian answered with a pained smirk. "And your poisons won't kill me. My biology isn't quite human." With a vicious punch, he knocked the Cheshire Cat unconscious. "He's defeated. Hand us the antidote."

"The victory had to be Lian's," Cheshire stated. "Since you interfered, Olivia's life is forfeit." The smirk was slapped off her face by a purple starbolt to the shoulder. She gripped her bleeding and smoldering shoulder, glaring with fury at Nightstar.

"Give it to us," Nightstar spat. "Or I aim somewhere else."

"Do your worst," Cheshire taunted.

Nightstar's answer was to fire at Cheshire's knee, causing her to crumple to the floor. "Do you want me to aim for your heart next?" Nightstar challenged.

"Mar'i, don't!" Roy exclaimed.

"I'm trying to save Olivia from dying a slow and painful death," Nightstar answered tersely. "In the meantime, I still have other spots I could fire on. As many as necessary to get her to give us the antidote."

To the surprise of everyone present, the Cheshire Cat had regained consciousness and managed to speak. "Give her the antidote," he pleaded weakly. "I don't want Nightstar to kill you."

Cheshire reached inside her outfit and pulled out a vial of something. "Give this to Dinah's girl," she said, tossing the vial to Nightstar, who caught it and went to Olivia, who seemed to be on the verge of passing out from her spasms. Nightstar kneeled beside Olivia and opened the vial, pouring its contents into the cyborg's mouth. Olivia swallowed and her spasms ceased almost immediately.

"It worked," Nightstar uttered with a sigh of relief.

* * *

End Notes: All right, that's about the end. The next chapter should be the end of this ficlet series, but not quite the end of the universe I've crafted here. Sorry I couldn't work in that Catman appearance I wanted. As for this universe, rest assured that I will return to it at a later date. In the meantime, feel free to let me know what you thought.


	13. Conclusion

"Illicit, Conclusion"

Disclaimer: The future DCU and its inhabitants as depicted here belong to DC Comics and Time Warner, not me. I have no decision-shaping power with either, much to my chagrin . . . and yours, too, I'm certain. Kidding. If someone like me ran DC Comics . . .

Author's note: Here we are, at the end of this series of ficlets. However, it is not quite the end of this universe I've crafted here. It's simply the end of this particular chapter in our protagonists' stories. Another chapter (not a chapter of this story, mind you) will begin soon enough.

* * *

Olivia was lying in a cot in Dr. Mid-Nite's clinic, the antidote steadily doing its work to purge her body of the poison with which she'd been infected. Cerdian was lying in another cot, his Atlantean physiology working overtime to purge the poison. Cheshire was in a heavily guarded room, recovering from the reconstructive surgery that had been done on her shoulder and knee. Ollie, Dinah, Connor, Mia, and Sin were by Olivia's side, waiting for her to awaken. Lian was beside Cerdian, curled up over him on his cot, comforting him with the warmth of her body. The Cheshire Cat and Roy waited next to Cheshire's cot.

The others simply hovered outside the rooms inhabited by the patients, waiting for them to finish recovering. Rose looked at Mar'i askance, prompting the half-Tamaranean girl to ask, "What's wrong, Rose?"

"You tortured her," Rose replied.

"I had to," Mar'i answered unrepentantly. "She was going to let Olivia die because we wouldn't play along with her sick game. I did what was necessary."

"You tortured her," Rose repeated. "What would you have done if Cheshire hadn't given in to her son's pleas? Would you have killed her like you said you would?"

"There's only so much pain a human body can take," Mar'i answered. "Only so much. All I had to do was keep pushing her buttons until she gave in."

"And what if you pushed too far?" Rose asked. "What if she died? What would you have done then?"

"Raided her corpse for the antidote," Mar'i replied.

"And what if your starbolts had destroyed the antidote?" Rose asked.

"What's the point of all these questions?" Mar'i asked.

"The point is that the reason we don't cross certain lines is that it brings us nothing but trouble down the line," Rose replied. "Take it from someone who's been there. Doing good doesn't always make what you do to get there right."

Mar'i looked Rose in the white lens concealing her singular eye. She pulled Rose into an embrace, nuzzling her neck while making sounds reminiscent of a cat's purring. Rose simply let Mar'i hold her, placing her hand on the younger woman's back to reassure her. She looked up at Mar'i and smiled at her.

"You think we can go see Olivia now?" Mar'i asked hopefully.

"I'll ask Ollie and Dinah," Rose replied, pulling herself out of Mar'i's embrace. She walked over to the doorway leading to Olivia's room and rapped on it, drawing the attention of the Arrow clan. "Is there room for two more?"

"Sure," Ollie replied.

Rose gestured to Mar'i and Mar'i joined her in Olivia's room. Mar'i looked at Olivia's figure on the cot. According to the readout on the machines monitoring her, her heartbeat and brain activity were steady, but she still hadn't woken up. Mar'i took a spot next to Mia and Sin, while Rose leaned on the front frame of Olivia's cot.

"No change?" Mar'i asked.

"No change," Sin echoed, reaching out to hold Olivia's hand. Olivia's hand gently squeezed Sin's, making Sin look up to Olivia's face, seeing green eyes open and aware. "You're awake."

Ollie was the first to hug Olivia, squeezing his Hypertime-tossed daughter tightly. Olivia gently wrapped her arms around her father. Dinah was the next to hug Olivia, along with Mia and Connor. Sin hugged her as well, gripping her tightly as though to confirm to herself that she was real. When Sin finally let go, Olivia smirked at Rose and Mar'i.

"Aren't you two going to hug me, too?" she asked coyly.

"You wonderful, vicious little brat," Rose replied mirthfully.

"I love you, too, Rose," Olivia answered sardonically, smirking wider at the jealousy barely concealed on Mar'i's face.

In Cheshire's room, the Cheshire Cat finally spoke. "You must have been something, for my mother to love you as she did," he muttered.

Roy looked at the young boy askance. The Cheshire Cat continued on, "She thinks about you a lot. She acts like she doesn't, but she still . . . she gets this faraway look in her eye sometimes."

"Do you know who your father is?" Roy asked.

"I met him once," the Cheshire Cat replied. "Too noble. Too sentimental." He paused. "My sister . . . I see a lot of what my mother loved about you in her."

"Yeah, she's something," Roy agreed with an unconscious smile. Beside him, the Cheshire Cat merely looked at his mother stoically. "I still love her, believe it or not."

"I can tell," the Cheshire Cat answered. "Where is my sister? Why isn't she here? Is she with her boyfriend?"

"Boyfriend?" Roy echoed confusedly.

"The boy who stopped me from killing her by throwing himself on my hidden weapon," the Cheshire Cat clarified. He smirked with grim satisfaction at seeing the dawning realization on Roy's face.

Speaking of Lian and Cerdian, the latter regained full consciousness, only to find a most tantalizing and embarrassing sight. Specifically, it was Lian lying next to and partly on him. Her outside leg was hooked over his front and her outside arm lay on his chest. Her smile was equal parts warmth, sex, and mischief.

"Welcome back to the world of the living," she greeted him.

"Lian, I . . ." Cerdian uttered, only for Lian to shush him with a kiss.

* * *

End Notes: Thus is the conclusion to "Illicit." It is not quite the conclusion to this universe, though; there are still stories to be told in it, such as what happens when somebody finds out about the real nature of Rose's relationship with Mar'i. Or how Roy copes with Lian's relationship with Cerdian. Or whether Damien will run into Kei again and if he's involved in any way with Selina Kyle's daughter Helena. Or whether Chris's fears of turning out like his father are founded. In the meantime, feel free to let me know what you thought of this first ficlet series.


End file.
